My, How Time Flies!

My, my, my....It's October already! (and one month since my last post, but no one is counting, right?)

It's been a bit of a rough start, but we are finally settling in to our routines. Here are some highlights of the past month:

• Today we welcomed our first guest reader for DEAR time. Our principal was gracious enough to come and read to us. He read The Principal from the Black Lagoon, and much to the delight of my class, invited us back to his office for a tour. We talked about the differences between fiction and non-fiction, and what a principal does. They even got to sit in his chair ( a truly historic moment in the life of a kindergartner)!
• We've implemented a new center system. We are still working out the kinks, but both the kids and myself are much happier than with our old method.
• The bond in our district passed, so hopefully we'll be getting a SMART board again! We've had the opportunity to use the one in the classroom across the hall while that class is in the library, which led to my dear little kinders asking why we don't have one. My answer: That's a good question, we should ask (our principal) about that. A bit bratty? Maybe. But I like to think of it as teaching researching and investigation skills. Why ask me, when they can go straight to the primary source?
• We are currently reading the Black Lagoon series. It's a favorite in October, and lends itself to talking about imaginations and the difference between fiction/non fiction.

I am sure there are so many more things I could/should post about. However, it's a school night and I'm tired.

Even when exhausted....I love my job!

P.S. Unfortunately, my Amazon gadget isn't working, so I will try to post links later.

WWAR: Puppies, Puppies, Puppies!

I didn't really want to start our WWAR series with this book. Don't misunderstand, it's a delightful little story that follows the life of puppies. It's filled with adorable illustrations, rhyming, and predictable text; an overall great read for early childhood kids. It's just not a book that I find particularly spectacular.

That is until it saved my tail this afternoon.

The air conditioner in our classroom went out this morning, making our classroom an oven. We were given the option of relocating to another room in our building (the staff meeting room) while we waited for the a/c to be fixed. So while my little heroes were at lunch, I hastily rehashed our plan for the afternoon, packed up whatever materials we needed, and schlepped it all down the 1/4 mile long hallway to the other room. The long walk+disrupted routine+a new environment+a frazzled teacher made for very, very high strung kindergartners this afternoon. We struggled through our afternoon lesson. We completed it, but not without 4 timeouts, 3 band-aids, and 2 tantrums.

In an effort to regain focus before shipping them off to activity, we sat down for some DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time. I had grabbed a stack of books, and on top was Puppies, Puppies, Puppies. To my utter surprise, my little heroes were completely captivated. After a few pages, they were anticipating the predictive text and reading with me (which I usually don't expect until a little later in the year). By the end of the story, both the heroes and myself were calmer and ready to take on the rest of the day.

Who would have thought? I guess I should have known, never judge a book by it's cover!

Even on hot and unpredictable days, I love my job!

What We Are Reading: Intro

One of the new ideas that a group of teachers is implementing this year is posting what they are reading (personally) outside their classroom on the news board. The purpose of this is two fold; 1- two model being a life long reader to our students, and 2- to start conversations about books. Of course, I jumped on the bandwagon as soon as I found out about it, and posted my current read (the Harry Potter Series). It also gave me an idea for a series on this blog...the What We Are Reading series, hereafter referred to as WWAR. I will post and review books that we read during our DEAR time at school; be it a book I read, or one selected by our guest readers. I love hearing about, discussing, and of course reading new books,  so I thought I would give my little piece of the blogosphere a forum to do so. Please feel free to recommend titles as well.

Happy Reading!